The Cutting Edge

This (and the previous) being the season for Bignoniaceae flowering, our pick this time, Tanaecium jaroba Sw., is a species that has only rarely been collected in Central America, only a hand-full of times in Costa Rica. Although our Manual contributor's for this family, Francisco Morales and Quirico Jiménez (both of INB) had stated in their draft treatment that the species was known only from a sterile Al Gentry collection, Don of Costa Rican Botany, William Burger (F), found in his recent treatment for Flora Costaricensis that they are:

"rarely collected plants of evergreen lowland rain forest formations along the Caribbean coastal plain. Collected in flower in late May (Pittier 3631) and early October (Gomez-Laurito 12913) in Costa Rica. This species ranges from southeastern Nicaragua and Jamaica to Venezuela....No other species of Bignoniaceae in Central America has such long and narrow corolla tubes. The flowers have a sweet odor (like Hedychium, Zingiberaceae) and open at night. They are probably pollinated by sphingid moths with very long tongues. Little Central American material of this species has been seen."

Thanks to Chico for the fine additional flowering collection (Morales 7959) and pick for this season.